Twelve is the magic number

Hello again, my friends! I’d like to start with an apology for not giving you any attention lately, but I am back from the pleasantly warm waters of Lithuanian lakes and rivers to the land of Internet. To mark this comeback, I’d like to talk about numbers, one number to be precise. 12 is going to be the most classy and stylish number you’ll see in Lithuanian basketball for at least a year. No the shot-clock has not been cut twice, nor is it clear that all Lithuanian clubs will have that much players in their roster for the next season. But one thing seems to be closer to happening than ever – LKL will the biggest amount of participants, 12 that is. Juventus Utena were given a green light and a ticket to the LKL roller coaster. Despite earlier talks both from the club and the league Utena will see their boys running in jerseys with an LKL badge on them. All but two clubs voted in favor of letting the side from northeastern Lithuania pay the entrance fee spread through two years – 250 thousand LTL this year and the remaining 100 thousand the year after. According to media, the nay-sayers were Sakalai and the newly merged club in Kaunas, who tried to avoid the competition in the middle of the table. Juventus are looking to assemble a strong squad, that is capable of finishing somewhere between the two ends of the table.

Still question marks

What is twelve now, might not end up to be twelve in the beggining of the season, there are doubts on Neptūnas and Sūduva abilities. No moves in the markets have been made by these teams and Sūduva managed to not come to the LKL board meeting; the league cannot reach the club management by telephone and e-mail. Something fishy’s happining there, but I hope and expect that the clubs will take themselves up and still compete in LKL, if not for the higher places, than for pride.